Hilda Nilsson

Hilda Nilsson (24 May 1876 – 10 August 1917) was a Swedish serial killer from Helsingborg who became known as "the angel maker on Bruks Street". She is one of Sweden's most notorious female serial killers.

In 1917, she was imprisoned for murdering eight children. Her trial, which included a mental examination, began on 2 June 1917. At the conclusion of the trial on 15 June 1917, she was sentenced to death. She escaped execution by committing suicide while in jail in Landskrona. She hanged herself with a linen cloth which she had tied to a cell door, and was thus the last person sentenced to death in Sweden not to have the sentence commuted.

Background Hilda Nilsson and her husband Gustaf lived in Helsingborg. The couple had accrued large debts and needed a way to pay their bills.

As a way to raise cash, Nilsson cared for infants in return for money from unmarried mothers who needed help. At that time, having a child outside of marriage was considered to be a shameful moral crime, and caring for these children for a fee (known as baby farming) was a common practice. She then left the room and returned hours later when the children were dead.

Discovery, trial and sentence Nilsson's crimes were discovered when a woman named Blenda Henricsson wanted to contact her child. When Nilsson refused contact, Henricsson asked the police to investigate. The police soon found ample incriminating evidence of the murders.

Nilsson was sentenced to death by guillotine for eight murders. Before the punishment could be carried out, she died from suicide by hanging on 10 August 1917.

She was the last death penalty prisoner in Swedish history whose sentence was not commuted.